'Western propaganda' - or just information you don't want to hear?

One of my pet irritations is when a story comes out critical of an African leader – and we hear all about how the Times LIVE is western propaganda.

In 2012 Avusa – the company that owns Times LIVE, was acquired by a unit of Mvelaphanda. It was then listed on the stock exchange.

Mvelaphanda was founded by Tokyo Sexwale, a man so western he got held by US security officers at an airport in 2013 – because he was on their terror watch list.

And yet we still hear about the Western or white owned media, every time news comes out critical of someone who is the subject of African hero worship.

There is nothing racial or cultural about it – it is the very human instinct to try and keep thinking well of our heroes, and badly of those who slam them.

You see something similar with conservatives in America talking about liberal biases in universities, the judiciary, the sciences, entertainment and news.

The second that it is critical of conservative thinking there are no sources of information which a conservative will consider.

And if you read your history, you will see that similar claims were made by the Apartheid government against the “English owned” press.

More recently in South Africa, we have gone so far as having people claim that the public protector and key opposition members are paid plants by the CIA.

Why? Because there are real problems in our country, and these problems can be solved – but doing so is much harder than simply dismissing the messengers.

And we know that our government can do better than it has been. How do we know that? Have you looked at Gauteng lately?

Since the ANC got a fright in the last elections, Gauteng has actually improved one heck of a lot. The premier has worked his backside off, and we are seeing the results.

We are seeing how the ANC can run when under pressure – and it is a lot better than it did when Gauteng was “easy money”.

Sure there are still problems, but when last have you heard anything about a basic billings crisis? We have load shedding, and the City of Johannesburg making a plan that seems to work.

We have even begun to see more people directing traffic when the lights are out. The province isn’t perfect, but it is improving.

Political parties, and it doesn’t matter which one we’re talking about, require an active and informed citizenry to work. They require that pressure to do their best, and when that pressure isn’t there they don’t perform because they don’t have to.

Conspiracy think, that instinct to dismiss all sources of information, that removes the pressure.